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tv   [untitled]    October 4, 2012 2:00am-2:30am PDT

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>> thank you very much. good afternoon and welcome to the september 28, 2012 of the local agency commission for the city and county of san francisco. i am david campos and i am the chair of the commission. we are joined by my colleagues, the
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vice chair, john avalos is in route and we are joined by committee members commissioners christine olague and hope schmeltzer and the other commissioners are enroute. the clerk is alisa miller and we are grateful to the follow members of the sfg tv staff and jesse larson and john ross. madam clerk if you could please call item number two and we are joined by the vice chair. >> item two is approval of the minutes from the last meeting special meeting. >> great. commissioner schmeltzer. >> i move to approve the minutes. >> do we have a motion? before we act on that motion we will act any member of the public that would like to speak. seeing none. we have a motion and a second. if we could take
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that without objection. thank now we can call item three. >> item three is community reports and sf program 448rand status of the public utilities commission. >> great and i will turn it over to first our executive 5n5nxzof nancy miller and we are joined by the assistant general manager, barbara hale but i want to simply note that we hit a pretty important milestone in the history of lafco here in san francisco. this past tuesday we have a final vote at the board of supervisors, an eight-three vote on community aggregation which allows the clean power program to move forward. certainly the first phase of that program, and i want to begin by thanking all of the members of the lafco, the
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commission who are here today and have been working on this for so many /)n)eí/years. of c our vice chair, commissioner avalos, one the newest members and commissioner olague and commissioner shelt -- schmeltzer and i want to thank you for your insight and that this program was done in the right way and we keep the various agencies accountable and i want to thank you for that, and i also want to thank our fab fabulous lafco staff. it took a lot of work behind the scenes and they're always ready to do what had to be done and of course this wouldn't be
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possible without the amazing work of the san francisco public utilities commission and we heard what everyone had to say about ed harrington, the former general manager now, who was really i think in many respects why so many people supported this program, but to his staff and beginning with the assistant general manager who spent a lot of time and had a lot of patience working on this and of course mr. campbell and everyone else who has worked to make this possible. i want to thank the puc and one of the things they am really proud of is over the years we have developed a pretty good working relationship between lafco and the puc. the work though is not done. the reality is to make this program come to full fruition. we have to continue to work together, and so with that before i turn it over to staff
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i wanted to know if any of my my colleagues wanted to make any comments? commissioner avalos. >> i beat you to it commissioner olague. sorry about that. i just want to echo your comments about all the work that was involved over the years to help pass clean power sf, and nancy miller and janson fried and the staff and michael campbell, and barbara hale and ed harrington and all last week 7k7kbqwas gr timing for the clean power and he timed his departure for that and i was happy to see it join together, and just to see that clean power sf would be just another one of the major
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achievements that ed harrington had over the course of his many -- several decades here in san francisco was very significant. that but also want to make sure you get the recognition that you greatly deserve for shepherding this through the last couple of years and i think it's really remarkable that we got the eight to three vote to get that level, that threshold for it to pass and i want to thank you for that effort because i really felt -- really inspired with the vote last week. i was really emotional about it and it was a landmark decision we made as a board. for some reason it seemed like a hisr but it's not. it's going to be dramatic change for the city and something to be proud of. it will need all of our work to be successful and i am confident
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it will be and i am confident to make that happen. >> thank you and this couldn't be done without the work of the amazing advocates and been with us for years and they deserve the gratitude to make this happen commissioner schmeltzer. >> thank you. i want to echo what was said. it's been a long time coming. i think i have been here ten years now when this was first proposed. there's been a lot of staff changes. i think both lafco and the puc have brought in tremendous people to work on that and we wouldn't have gotten here without barbara and mike and without the lafco staff of
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nancy miller and jason fried and the rest of the folks who worked on this and i want to thank them for fostering that close relationship, and i know that's going to be necessary to move forward in the future too so i want to really thank the staff for their hard work on this. >> thank you commissioner. and now commissioner olague. >> yeah. i came in at the tail end of the conversation, but for me it's one of the votes i am most proud of over the time i have been here. this say conversation long over due and this is the beginning of the conversation to trying to create a more sustainable culture and a city that reflects those values and if you look at alternative ways of delivering power really and i think
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ultimately y supervisor campos for really managing to shepherd in the eight vote its took to really make this a pretty solid vote and commissioner schmeltzer you have been here for a long time and have engaged in these conversations for a while, and i really give a lot of credit to the advocates and i think coming from that perspective we think in terms of very idealistic. we start with the most pure place ideologicalally and what's the perfect idea? but it's sometimes hard to step a few feet away from that perfect conversation to make the 3x3x1ñ
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compromise and i thank the advocates for meeting us halfway and thank you for that and jim and others who have been a part of the conversation for decades. >> well thank you. thank you colleagues. thank you commissioners and of course thank you to also to the clerk's office who has always done a great job of supporting and staffing lafco, so with they will turn it over to ms. miller and one of the big questions that i had in terms of moving this forward is how do we make sure that this synergy between lafco and the san francisco public utilities commission continues to make sure that we hit the ground running as we're moving to the next stage of the process, and one of the ideas i had and was the idea of making sure that we have a follow up joint meeting of the two bodies, so that we can have an in-depth
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discussion about next steps and making sure that we're crossing all the t's and doting the i's. >> and i want to say on behalf of staff it's an incredible vote last week. i know you have been following the press. it's nationwide press on the program and we are going to be honoring mike and honoring ed last week and i want to say a special thank you to barbara hale and when i came to work with lafco and a decade ago and honestly i didn't realize it was that long ago and barbara and we had conversations about the process and to start the process and others came along but barbara was at the very beginning and
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always a great voice of reas of what was possible and what was going on and i want to thank you for that, so we are working on a joint meeting and october 26 which is the next scheduled lafco meeting. i have talked with the clerk and barbara and the current general manager so if that date doesn't work we will find an alternate date as soon as possible, and you're right there are next steps so barbara was kind enough to come today and talk where we're going and first is get the contract done with shell. you may have noticed they attended every meeting, in the audience, and they were aware of what it took and they are appreciative but now we're in the next steps of the final hard negotiations and signs of the contract and
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proceeding with the market so i was going to ask barbara to go that with you. if you have questions about the joint meeting though this is a good time to ask. >> thank you very much ms. hale and thanks for being here and once again thanks for all the years you put in this program and your commitment and your ability to i think simply some complex issues and find a way out of predicaments we found ourselves in. >> thank you. it's been a long road and there are miles ahead so let's talk about the miles ahead. we took the vote over the last two weeks, the votes that occurred, and i wanted to summarize the program changes that we're factoring into the program. we are prioritizing low income receipt of the energy efficiency and go solar incentive payments associated
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with this program. the board ordinance adopted appropriated additional $2 million to go solar sf for customers and additional $2 million funding of efficiency programs and also for clean power sf customers and after the vote we are under your guidance and directions targeting the expenditure as low income customers and in that area in san francisco for pg&e. we were directed to minimize these things and maintaining financial viability of the program. we are to offer low income discounts and hardship fund in the rate components we have adopted through this
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program. we are to conduct extensive, outreach, notification to all customers with special attention to low income and non english speaking communities. we are to have no departure charge during the first six months of the program and charging only a limited amount there after. we were talking about a $5 charge and we were payments for reserves in the program for the rates that are set. quite a few of the components relate to rates. those is one of the focused areas. in the near term with the puc we have met with the rate fairness board and acclimate them with the program. we will meet with them october 12. that is a public
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meeting. the board will be hearing what staff proposes as the maximum amount that each tier and type of customer would be charged under the clean power sf program for the generation components of the rates. as ms. miller mentioned we need to do the finl page turn modifications of the shell contract and completion of the shell contract that we have been authorized to sign. we need to finalize the contract with noble america, the firm that is supporting back office support for the program and we need to continue our work in developing and studying the local build out elements of the program which were appropriated funds in the ordinance that was finally passod tuesday. throughout those efforts we are also developing our kuft education and noteification program. we
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never intended to have goch you customers who were surprised to find us as the power provider under this program. we heard from the board and the mayor loud and clear that is a very key issue for you as policy makers as our policy guides, so we are incorporating more elements into that program and will be coming back to you and to the commission with that program proposal in draft form and get feedback to get that target. on the commission meeting of october ninth of next week -- the week after next, excuse me. we will present ou commission with an opportunity to award the contract for developing that program. we conducted a competitive bidding
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process to select a bidder, to select a counter party to develop that marketing and outreach program for us, and the commission will be asked to authorize us to sign a contract and begin that work. the rate fairness board meeting of october 12 is just one of the near term notice ones. we will have three or four more before we bring to our commission the recommendation on what the not to exceed rate should be with the rate fairness board members providing advice to our commission. as you are familiar supervisors who are sitting as commissioners today are familiar with the rate making process that is dictated in the city charter. that has been applied to water and sewer rates making
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most recently. same process for these rates. once our commission adopts a rate it will be forwarded to the board of supervisors where it will sit for not less than 30 days. no action on the part of the board means the rates go into effect, so anygaction on the part of the board suspends that process for opportunities for additional hearing and consideration of those rates. we hope to be -- if we stay on target with our schedule, we hope to be in that 30 day period in mid-december where -- excuse me, in mid-november through mid-december so that by mid-december we will have a. -- adopted the rates for the
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program and we will be in a more public mode with the turn of the calendar implementing our customer education and notification program, implementing the provisions that ask customers to tell us "are you in? are you out? " and hopefully the serving customers in this program by july of 2013. >> great. thank you very much ms. hale. colleague just so you know we're not able to cancel a request to speak so if you are done speaking if you can cancel it yourself, but i don't know if there is any question. commissioner avalos. >> yeah. -- thank you chair campos. we talked about the opt in process and what we have envisioned for that i think that is a good discussion for the next hearing we can do between
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lafco and the puc. >> yes i think the lafco clerk and the puc secretary will work with chairs to establish the agenda for that meeting. we can bring the concepts forward at that time if we're successful for getting a quorum of the date ms. miller mentioned -- we probably won't have the fully flushed out program because we're just getting the contractor on board but we can use that day to describe our intentionos that education and notification program. okay. >> and i am wondering if there is a way -- i'm not sure what the time lines we're looking at for opt in versus opt out. i think it makes a lot of sense for those to have a opt in for those that want to and those that want it earlier you could have their testimony for the outreach. that could go
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towards the information people get to opt in or not or stay in and have those testimonies available i think would be very helpful and certainly as we go down the line and the second or third process would be good for that. >> sounds good. >> and we took note of that at the supervisor's hearing and there were requests for opting out, and part of the marketing and outreach campaign will include discussion of that. that was one of the things that was tagged or targeted with the consultant is coming up with that kind of a program, the opt in and the opt out and how to maximize that, so we will have more hopefully at our joint meeting in a month, and i just wanted to say on the marketing and outreach which is a really important part of this program, mr. fried was involved in the drafting of that and i was involved in the scoring and the selection criteria of the consultant, so we're working
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with the sfpuc trying to roll this out as fast as possible, but with all the necessary ingredients that we need for a successful program. >> and just relative to opting in have we identified anyone already, any of the outreach we did for individuals or households that are willing to sign up, want to sign up? >> well, we in the last -- i would say yes and no. we don't have an official list because that requires them to see the program, and then officially opt in, but we have had numerous community presentations. jason participated and i want to say over 60 -- sorry over a hundred community meetings where he provided information and out into the community so we will duplicate that effort when we get the consultant on board and
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the best way so we can get the official list together. >> but we had expressions of interest for the program and against the program with the publicity it received with the vote. >> thank you. >> thank you. i think starting that is really helpful. i don't know how much can be done in terms of a community outreach plan between now and the time of the joint meeting. i don't know what you think might be possible in terms of presenting something along those lines. >> yeah. we actually carved out of the consultant's request for proposals the components of the outreach, the sort of the door to door components of the outreach that we envision, so we have already flushed some of that out in house and want to partner it with the proposal that comes from our consultants
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so we will be able to say what we envision commissioner. >> thank you very much. i think that would be helpful. i think a presentation by the puc with lafco's assistance and outlines general parameters of what this outreach looks like. i would also suggest that you reach out to every individual supervisor to make sure that you get feedback from them on you know specific communities or neighborhoods in their district that they are -- they might have some concern about in terms of difficulty of reaching out to them. maybe also identify potential partners in that effort. a lot of the outreach especially in mono lingual communities and other communities might be be best strategy is involving community based organizations and make sure you compile a list of those. i think that would be helpful. colleagues any other
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comments or questions? great. thank you very much. and we have been joined by commissioner pimentel as well so why don't we open it up to public comment. any member of the public would like to speak? you each have three minutes. >> good afternoon commissioners. eric brooks representing san francisco green party and the grass-roots party for the city. i'm not going to wax poetic or anything but it's incredible we reach i -- reached this point and i am still pinching myself and how we got to the success and of course everyone in the room had a big part of it and crucial ed harrington and
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commissioner avalos and i am the guy disoghtd show up in city call and be the community whip but there is so much more of an organization beneath like that like i'm a small piece of the iceberg and over the years we have been working on this there are key groups and we wouldn't have gotten this done. early on green peace, sierra club, global exchange, and bright line project and a new one and a large group which is the first crystallization of organizations all around the bay area to push for local clean energy and local clean alliance and without that group we also wouldn't be here and i want to put out the kudos to all those folks. they did incredible work. as to next steps i think
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the measure that was passed at the board of supervisors on the 18th was exactly the right way to pass it, and i am glad the amendments that got passed got passed and the ones that didn't, didn't and i think it's important to recognize the concerns that the mayor is raising are valid concerns and want to make sure folks know that the advocates share the concerns and as i said in the finance and budget committee and if we roll it out and it's not popular and people get freaked out for the price or didn't know what they were going to spend that is not good for clean energy. it's bad for it. it would turn people away from it, so you have the commitment of the advocates that we will stay on the case. we want to work monthly with the staff and local power to get this under way in the right way, i would always mention as far as outreach goes
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advocates now think the key is the opt out rate and the initial rate that we give people next year. we strongly believe that the opt out could be lower than 50% and using the proper marketing mechanisms and shares and we strongly believe by spring even if you have a max ten or $20 we can get lower than that through mechanisms that are being worked on through local power so let's stay -- >> thank you mr. brooks. is there any other members of the public that would like to speak? seeing none and public comment is closed and thank you mr. brook for mentioning all of the advocates involved over the years. if you look at what happened over the years the advocacy was really instrumental and making it clear there is interest in this, and i think in all of us s